Fiat's eco:Drive wins award for defining new car-driver relationship
Click above for a high-res gallery of Jodie Kidd with the Fiat eco:Drive
Ever hear of an advertising award given to a piece of software that helps drivers save gas at the pumps? That's what Fiat's eco:Drive recently did, and the organizers of the Cannes Cyber Lions, a major event in the advertising industry, didn't praise the software's ability to analyze driver habits wins but instead the way it established a new kind of relationship between consumer and car. The prize was one of the three Grand Prix awarded during the Cannes Cyber Lions.
Since the eco:Drive concept was the object of praise, the organizers set aside the technological side of eco:Drive, including the way it gathers information from the vehicle and how it has been driven into a USB drive that is then plugged into your computer. Using this information, the system gives a detailed analysis of the driver's performance, along with suggestions on how to improve efficiency even further by changing driving habits. Models like it, too.
[Source: Fiat]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alan 8:52AM (7/02/2009)
Pointless gimmick. People who can't work out how to drive more efficiently without the aid of a computer shouldn't be allowed to drive!
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Craig Mayhem 9:23AM (7/02/2009)
And get off my lawn!
Alan 9:23AM (7/02/2009)
YEAH!
AutoCritical 9:38AM (7/02/2009)
I dunno Alan, I guess for those people who want to learn, it would be good. I'd like to think I know how to drive economically, but to get it verified, that would be cool. At the same time, after a few weeks....probably won't 'use' it.
Alan 9:42AM (7/02/2009)
:-)
My comment was kind of tongue in cheek, mainly because I'm particularly cynical about Fiat's motives, I can see how it was all worked out in a meeting. Hey, how much would it cost to pull some data from the cars computer onto a USB stick? Not much! Could we knock up some software to draw some pretty charts? Yeah that will be failry cheap. Then we could get Jodie Kidd to sit in the car looking like a plank holding this little USB stick. Great! We're going to look sooooo green and eco friendly now.
Actually of course it doesn't do any harm and I wouldn't mind having one if it didn't add any significant cost to the car, but at the end of the day hard acceleration and braking uses more fuel.
Nick P. 9:08AM (7/02/2009)
Garbage. What we need is a prize awarded to the Automaker making the most effort toward EV. Car dealerships should also get recognized, since they dictate which cars get ordered and put on the lot.
Naming the award won't be easy as the Tesla & Volt names are already taken...
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dan 10:44PM (7/02/2009)
those are some man hands on that so-called model...
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